Koop Sisters Look to Lead Roseville Volleyball in Sectional Play

Roseville High School juniors and twin sisters Meghan and Melissa Koop hope to  lead the Raiders volleyball through the upcoming section tournament and onto state.

"Ueland has talked to us even last year as sophomores about having a bigger leadership role and putting a little more pressure on us by stepping up more," Meghan Koop said about their coach Greg Ueland. "What we do is reach out to the younger girls because we've been there before."

The Koop sisters have done just that in 2011 by leading a young Raiders squad to a 17-10 record overall and a 6-5 record in the Suburban East Conference for fifth place.

The Raiders will enter the Section 4AAA Tournament on Wednesday as the No. 6 seed against White Bear Lake, a team the Raiders have swept this season.

This will be the third trip for the Koop sisters to the section tournament as they have played on varsity for the past three seasons. They have been strong leaders through their hard work during the season and between seasons.

"We both started on JV our freshman year," Melissa Koop said. "And we wanted to push for starting on varsity."

Their time at camps, clinics and playing for club teams paid off as they earned varsity spots during their freshman season. They helped the Raiders reach the section finals that season. Then, the sisters continued on with more Junior Olympic volleyball.

"I don't think the season ends for us," Meghan Koop said. "We have three weeks off at the most, but we still go in the gym anyway."

Besides playing the sport, they both enjoy watching Big Ten college volleyball.

"Watching elite-level volleyball just makes you want to push for it," Melissa Koop said.

The two sisters also compete against each other by pushing each other in practice and in the matches.

"We compare stats sometimes at the end of the season to see who got more," Meghan Koop said.

That helps the team fire up too. In addition, the opponents and the officials get confused at the sight of twin sister volleyball players.

"Sometimes they get confused, or they don't know who's hitting, or they think we're the same person," Meghan Koop said.

Both have college volleyball aspirations, but they're looking at a formidable Section 4AA field this coming week.